


The Wargaming Club

by BrainiacVeins



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Gen, wargaming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-06-19 17:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15514989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrainiacVeins/pseuds/BrainiacVeins
Summary: After a game company releases their rules online for free, a lot more people joined the wargaming club at school. People meet, people fall in love, and most of all, people obliterate each other's armies for fun.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> This fic is probably gonna be a good deal long, and will probably update sporadically. Please bear with me. 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

“Oh, that’s bullshit!”

Karkat’s cry of indignation rung in the small club room. It drew a giggle from Vriska, who was sitting in the corner painting her Spider-pirates, not paying attention to the game at hand. Karkat’s outbursts were a common occurence, he had strong opinions of the various special rules of each faction. 

Sollux slowly adjusted his sunglasses before replying, his lisp accentuating his words.

“KK, you can’t call everything that gives me an advantage bullshit. Special rules exist for strategic variety.”

“Strategic variety my ass, this is the second time you survive a limited weapon with Carapace. It’s a point-blank explosion! How the fuck is “superior external structuring” letting you survive point-blank explosions?!”

“Well, maybe if you didn’t target the biggest thing with limited weapons...”

“Whatever! Your turn, smartass.”

Sollux snickered. Karkat wasn’t the greatest strategist of all time, but he was still pretty new so it was easy to forgive. In time, he’d learn proper use of anti-vehicle units. He looked back at the board, thinking for a second. As much shit as he’d give his best friend, he’d dug himself in pretty solidly. Flanks were impossible, and while Karkat had wasted all his sources of big damage on his Hive Guard, it was difficult to move it beyond the infantry mess that was now the middle of the battlefield…

Sollux’s train of thought was interrupted when the fourth member of the club came in. Carrying a box containing his Triton army under his arm, Eridan ran to the table. 

“Hey guys,” he said, voice wavering as usual, “you’ll never guess what just happened this morning.”

“FF finally agreed to go out with you?” Sollux said, with a mocking tone.

“No! Well… I don’t know, she will someday, ok? But listen, Playground just put out the new rulebooks-”

“Yeah,” said Karkat, “we knew about that months ago.”

“But wait! They released them… online. For free.”

Now, even Vriska was interested, carefully placing her spider-pirate on the workbench before approaching the conversation.

“... Are you serious?” asked Sollux, in disbelief.

“Yeah. They said it was to attract new players to the hobby.”

“Which means…” said Vriska, pensive.

Eridan stared at her as he finished.

“That’s right. Grey tide.”

Those words seemed to send a shiver down Sollux’s spine. He started to sputter, muttering about how he “just finished training KK” and “how’re we gonna deal with a big influx of new players”. He seemed really flustered at the idea of more students joining the club.

“Relax,” said Vriska, “I’ll help you with the new kids. Besides, it’ll help us grab more funds for the club and it’ll give shouty some opponents closer to his skill level.”

“Yeah,” added Eridan, “I can help too. Besides, how many players do you think’ll join in one week?”

Karkat sat back while the two veterans comforted the club president. He was rather eager at the news: more people in the hobby meant he might finally make friends other than Sollux. They were also less likely than him to pick super bullshitty armies that the president ran to get players used to special rules.

This’d be fun, he concluded. He was excited to meet the new players.


	2. Day one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Dave join and meet the new club members. A game ensues.

John was excited.

He’d first heard of Dying Sky months ago. He’d found a fan-made wiki that detailed the setting’s backstory, presenting the factions and world in a casual, yet informative tone. He’d fallen in love with the various heroes of the game, warriors fighting for righteous causes across the galaxy. And then there were the miniatures: small works of art in themselves, carefully assembled and painted by their owners. All of it piqued John’s interest, very much so. He’d sent links to Dave, his best friend, and even his façade of ironic detachment was somewhat shattered by the miniature art, though he mocked the setting a fair bit.

“This is cool as shit”, he remembered Dave sending him after he saw the miniatures gallery. 

The price of getting into the game was the only thing holding them back. For months they had been silent observers. But then a miracle happened: Playground Inc., the company behind the Dying Sky brand, released the new edition’s rulebooks and army lists online, for free. That was the push the two friends needed. They gathered the money they got from their part-time jobs and visited the hobby store in their town.

The clerks there were extremely friendly when they entered. Having read up on the setting months prior, John and Dave had each already selected a faction: John would play as the freedom-loving Wind Exiles, a faction that was a good all-arounder with great mobility but very little vehicular support, while Dave had picked the Techknights of the Cog, a technocratic order of melee fighters with few ranged options but many vehicles. They told the clerks that they knew what they wanted, the base set for their faction, but didn’t know how to expand. The clerks were very helpful, telling them of dozens of ways they could expand their first army, giving them tips on building and painting. The pair had severely underestimated the work that went into building an army, and by the end of their shopping spree had expended most of their budget for the next few months, but they were satisfied. They retreated to John’s house, where the real fun would begin. 

They spent the entire afternoon in John’s living room, on a small coffee table, putting together the miniatures they had just bought. John found himself to be a rather good assembler, while Dave was great at painting the minis. In the end, it was all money well spent: they had two very good-looking armies ready. They played one or two games, learning the arcane rules of the game as well as the exceptions put by the units’ special abilities. By the end of the afternoon, they felt a lot more at ease with the basic rules of the game, and familiar with the armies they had bought.

Just before Dave left with his army, John confided in the last preparation he had made. He explained that he thought it’d be useless to just play with one another, so he had looked around, and found out through a friend about their high school’s wargaming club. Since the rules had been put online, they had been expecting new players, and their members were all experienced players, who could help them learn new tactics. He suggested they join it.

“Sure,” said Dave, with his usual cool, “let’s join the nerds club.”

Even though there was a hint of mockery and snark in the phrase, he could tell Dave was interested. 

So there he was, in the fresh spring morning, a borrowed toolbox to store his army in his hand, walking from the bus to school. He quickly went to his locker and dropped his stuff, picking up his notebooks for the first class of the day. If he remembered correctly, the wargaming club met after school, in a room on the third floor. So he’d have to wait until his last class to actually play.

He wondered what they were like, the other members.

As usual, he walked up to Dave’s locker. Dave usually came in a bit later than him, and as such was picking up his stuff when John was ready. Like John, he came in with extra baggage today: unlike John, he had a dedicated briefcase for his minis, which he had bought “ironically”.

“Hey Dave! Excited for the club meet later today?” said John, full of excitement.

“Yeah,” replied Dave, face as blank as ever, “I can’t wait to go be a nerd with my fellow geeks.”

“C’m’on, Dave, this’ll be fun! We’ve wanted to play for months now, and we finally have other people to play with.”

“I don’t know, man, they could also be turbo nerf herders.”

“Dave, you just used an insult from Star Wars to insult nerds.”

“So? Empire’s a classic man, you can’t deny that.”

The two continued to amicably bicker until they reached their respective classes. The rest of the day went by uneventfully, John spending his lunch excitedly talking with Dave. Dave was happy to see his friend jubilate so much over these minis that they had assembled. If Dave was honest, he was excited too. The game was fun, and while he wasn’t particularly interested in meeting new people, he was interested in meeting new players.

Besides, John’s enthusiasm was contagious. 

John and Dave didn’t share many classes, and so they weren’t together when the last class of the day ended. They had agreed to meet at the cafeteria afterwards, so Dave ran by his locker, dropping his binder and picking up the ironic special briefcase he had for his minis (he was still quite proud of it, though he hadn’t had the time to decorate it with ironic stickers), and walked towards the cafeteria.

John was waiting, a toolbox at his side. 

“Dave! What took you so long?”

“Calm down, Egbert, I had to grab my stuff first. So, where’s the club?”

“Room 0413.” said John. “Come on, we’ll be late!”

“You can’t be late to a geekfest, John.”

Rolling his eyes, John got off the table he was sitting on and guided Dave through the corridors. They went towards the 0400 pavillon, that housed many of the non-athletic clubs and committees. Passing rooms filled with students, they finally reached 0413.

Looking at one another, John made the first step and opened the door. 

The room was about as large as classrooms were, but was arranged differently. There were five tables, strewn across the floor, with several chairs around them. Four of the tables were covered with bits of scenery, like the ones John and Dave had seen at the hobby store. The last table was covered in paint and pots, as well as a few unfinished minis. Overall, the room felt used, which was more than could be said for some of the other clubs in the building.

“See Sollux? I told you more people’d show up!”

The exclamation had come from a tall, lanky blonde girl in a pink-and-purple ensemble. She was hardly the only one standing out, though: next to her, seated, was a small korean guy wearing thick glasses, and across from him was a young indian man in a large sweater. Standing next to him was a tall, statuesque girl, olive-skinned. And in the back, two more kids, a blonde girl wearing gaudy blue lipstick and glasses, who perked up at the sight of John, and a more tan boy with hipster glasses. 

“John! You came!” exclaimed the girl with the gaudy lipstick.

“You know these guys, Vris?” asked the boy with the hipster glasses.

“I know John. Though I assume the other one is… Dave? John’s told me so much about you.”

Dave nodded. 

“Alright, so we know who these guys are,” said the korean guy, with a heavy lisp, “might as well introduce ourselves. I’m Sollux, I’m the club president. You already know Vriska, the guy next to her is Eridan, the guy in front of me is Karkat, and I’ll let the two new additions to the club introduce themselves.”

The tall middle-eastern girl spoke up first. “Greetings, my name is Kanaya. I was brought here by Karkat and I hope to play with you both at some point.”

“And I’m Roxanne Lalonde, but you can call me Roxy.” said the girl in pink and purple.

“Lalonde?” said Dave, quizzical.

“You wouldn’t happen to be related to Rose Lalonde, would you?” asked John.

“Yeah, she’s my cousin.”

“Cool! I know her, she’s pretty cool. Didn’t know she had a cousin at this school.”

“Yeah. Small world, huh?”

“Alright, if you’re done, there are battles to be had”, said Sollux. “You guys know how to play?”

“Yep” said John and Dave in unison.

“Alright, perfect. Uhm…” Sollux seemed lost in thought. “Oh, I know! Why don’t we do two-on-two battles? We’ve got enough people.”

Everyone agreed it was a good idea.

“I’m fighting Vris,” said Eridan, “You can pick your partner.”

“I’ll take Karkat’s mom,” added Vriska.

“Do not refer to me as such, please.” murmured Kanaya

“You! Sunglasses boy!” shouted Eridan to Dave. “I have a good feeling about you, come be my partner.”

Dave shrugged and moseyed on over to the table Eridan, Kanaya and Vriska were setting up at.

“Alright, that leaves you two,” said Sollux. “Karkat, you’re playing with new boy. I’ll play with Roxy.” 

This order was met with silent protest by Karkat, which died down as quickly as it sprang up. The grumpy indian boy went to the painting table, grabbing a red box under it, then came back and started setting up alongside John. 

“You play Alternian Empire?” John tried to make small talk while they were setting up.

“Yeah, what do you play? Oh, Wind Exiles… that’s not too bad...” Karkat was muttering to himself as he was looking at the battlefield. John looked at the field. The terrain was a ruined city, with ruined buildings strewn across the table in a haphazard fashion.

“Ok, so the way I see it, Sollux is gonna try to use his phalanxes to blockade us in and slowly just slug it out with us,” started Karkat. “We can’t let that happen. So you’re gonna flank with your dustrunners, while I set up in the middle to counter his blockade. Do you have any tornadoes?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, they’ll go in the middle with me, your elites are tougher than your infantry and they’ll do good versus Sollux’s stupid fucking phalanx resistance. Let’s see, what’s she playing… Oh. Okay, gotta keep that in mind.”

John looked across the table. Sollux and Roxy were setting up their models. It looked like Sollux was playing Insectdroids, a rather popular faction of mechanical insects, and Roxy… 

John wasn’t sure what Roxy was playing. It certainly wasn’t a popular faction. They were armored, but also wearing long blue robes. 

“Hey, Karkat? What faction is Roxy playing?”

“Void Wizards. She won’t be able to assault you, but she has pretty fucking strong magic. Be careful.”

John nodded, and quickly set up his units the way Karkat guided him to, flanking the army on each side. 

The starting roll-off went the way of Sollux and Roxy, and just as Karkat predicted, Sollux sent his phalanx towards the center of the table. Karkat responded by moving his main infantry line, and immediately shooting at the melee-focused unit. Rolls went down, and by the end of the phase Sollux’s phalanx stood firm, enduring minimal losses.

John heard Karkat mutter something about “fucking Carapace rolls”.

Roxy didn’t have that many units, but she moved what seemed to be her infantry behind the phalanx, returning fire on Karkat’s infantry, which took the hit harder than Sollux’s elite but surviving due to Roxy’s bad rolls. 

Then it was John’s turn. He had a few options. He could start the flank immediately, but that would be tipping Karkat’s plan early. He could approach his wind mage, try to deny Roxy’s magic before it became out of hand. Or, and this was the most sensible option, he could charge immediately with the tornadoes, his prized elites, and try and make a dent in Sollux’s defense. 

Yeah, that plan made the most sense.

John immediately dived in with his tornadoes, passing Karkat’s infantry and entering base-to-base contact with the phalanx. Rolls were made, and by the end of it his tornadoes stood strong, while Sollux botched most of his invulnerability rolls provided by Carapace and had a much weaker front line.

John looked at Karkat with a smile, which was not returned. However, he could see the look of animosity in Karkat’s eyes die a little before he returned his focus on the game. 

The next few turns went by without much action: Karkat advanced his two threshecutioner regiments, elites focused on melee combat, while Sollux moved his ranged infantry behind the cover of the abandoned buildings. Roxy, oddly, moved her commander and what John assumed were her elites closer to the melee. Meanwhile, John brought his commander, the wind mage, closer to the mass of soldiers in the middle of town, and then started to flank with his ranged infantry, opening fire on the now cover-less Insectdroid infantry. The rolls were obviously in his favor, as he managed to get most of Sollux’s soldiers off the field.

“A flank maneuver. Not bad, KK.” Commented Sollux. 

For the first time of the afternoon, John saw Karkat smile. 

“However, we have a plan for that.”

And with that mysterious phrase, Sollux retreated his phalanx as much as possible. Karkat pressed the attack, following with his threshecutioners.

Roxy started laughing.

“I cast Null and Void with my robed ones,” she said, “and I target the area with all your threshecutioners.”

John looked at Karkat, who had gone pale at the words being uttered by the new club member. He’d walked straight into the trap set up by the other duo. He got up.

“SOLLUX YOU MOTHERFUCKER. YOU PLANNED THIS DIDN’T YOU?”

“Actually, Roxy had the idea,” Sollux said, shrugging, “you got had by a neophyte.”

John looked at the area Roxy was targeting. She had missed something.

“Wait! I roll to deny the Null and Void. Also, I get +1 to the roll, since you’re directly targeting my wind mage, because of Heart of Wind.”

Karkat calmed down and looked at the board. Indeed, John’s wind mage was within the area of impact, and wind mages were especially good at denying spells (the lore was very fond of this trait). 

“Alright,” said Roxy, “but I get to roll twice, because of Empty Mind.”

She rolled first, scoring a one. 

“Well I’m not using that one,” she said, grimacing.

She rolled a second time, scoring a three. 

John took a deep breath, and rolled his own dice.

Three. Plus one.

He’d successfully denied the enemy spell.

“Dangit!” exclaimed Roxy with a smile, “That was 4 turns of magic points stored!”

Karkat and John were back in the game. John kept pressing his advantage on the flank, destroying Sollux’s ranged infantry, while Karkat destroyed his melee. In the end, they killed his commander, a Hive King (notoriously hard to kill, but a combination of John’s tornadoes and Karkat’s threshecutioners destroyed him), and Roxy conceded on her next turn. 

John beamed. He had won his first skirmish, and beaten none other than the club president! He went to shake his opponent’s hands, which Sollux did with a smile and Roxy did with a wink. He then went to shake Karkat’s hand.

“Not bad, for a beginner. You kind of saved my ass.”

John shrugged.

“Wind Mages are kind of made for melee anyway. They don’t have much power in their spells, but their denies are godly.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind when I fight you. I can tell you and the other newbies are going to be… good. You’ve made yourself a rival, John.”

John went back to the table and started picking up his units. He was proud of his win. He’d even made someone concede! This day couldn’t get any better. 

At least, that’s what he thought, until Roxy came up behind him. 

“That was a nice move, the deny.”

“Yeah, Karkat told me you had magic so I knew I had to get in there and… stop you from whatever you were gonna do.”

“Is that your entire army?”

“For now, yeah. I’m planning on buying the more expensive models a bit later.”

“I mean… you did beat me, why don’t I help you expand your army a bit? It’s a lot smaller than the older members, hell it’s a lot smaller than mine and I only started a month ago.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“I mean, it’s not exactly like I’m hurting for cash. How about this weekend? Wanna go shopping with a top notch babe?”

“Sure! Sounds like fun.”

“Alright! Catch you at the hobby shop!”

Roxy then left. John finished picking up his minis and then went to watch Dave play his game.

Roxy seemed nice, he thought. This’d be the start of a wonderful friendship.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment and leave kudos if you enjoyed, it really encourages me to keep writing! 
> 
> Also, I'll post a glossary in the future with all the technical game terms, but I hope you can still understand what is happening most of the time.


	3. To The Hobby Shop!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More people join the Dying Sky craze, and a day of shopping at the hobby shop!

\-- gallowsCalibrator [GC] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 19:26 --

GC: H3Y D4V3  
TG: hey rezi  
GC: HOW W4S TH3 N3RD G4TH3R1NG?  
TG: cooler than i thought itd be honestly  
TG: i played with your friend vriska  
GC: OH?  
GC: Y34H 1 SHOULD H4V3 W4RN3D YOU SH3 W4S 1N TH4T CLUB  
TG: honestly she wasnt that bad  
TG: nowhere near the omega level bitch you described her as  
GC: D4V3 TRUST M3 SH3 C4N B3  
GC: SH3’S MY FR13ND BUT SH3 C4N B3 TH3 B1GG3ST B1TCH WH3N SH3 W4NTS  
GC: 1’M SURPR1S3D SH3 W3NT 34SY ON YOU  
TG: same tbh  
TG: but i mean its not like i was making it rain opportunities to be up in my grill  
TG: we won  
TG: because eridan cant coordinate an assault to save his life  
GC: H4H  
TG: you should join us  
GC: ?  
TG: i think itd be fun to have you around. besides, your moms rich so it aint like you dont have the dough to build an army  
TG: hell i can paint it for you  
GC: 1’LL SL33P ON 1T >:]

\-- gallowsCalibrator [GC] ceased pestering turntechGodhead [TG] at 19:30 --

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] started pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 19:42 --

TG: hey harley  
GG: dave!! whats up :)  
TG: not much  
TG: kicking back  
GG: alright, coolkid ;)  
GG: how was the gaming club thing? john said you were going today  
TG: honestly i had a blast  
TG: this game is so fun you have no idea  
GG: im glad youre having fun!! :)  
GG: makes me kinda wish i was playing  
TG: i mean  
TG: you could  
TG: but first you gotta figure out if the game attracts you  
TG: this aint a light hobby  
GG: i mean, id like to try at least  
GG: is there like a beginner event where i can try it  
TG: tell you what harley  
TG: well do what me and john did  
TG: ill send you a few links that might interest you on the setting and the game  
TG: and if it makes you wanna try well get you a starter kit  
GG: sounds good!!  
TG: http://dyingsky.wikia.com  
TG: here  
TG: thats most of the setting info  
TG: http://playground.com/rulesets  
TG: those are the rules  
GG: omg they have dogs!!  
GG: im sold!!  
TG: read the rules harley  
GG: fine…  
GG: it looks fun honestly  
GG: i kinda wanna try, but just with you first  
GG: so i can get better before playing with other people  
TG: yeah alright  
TG: well make you the best wolfie commander in the club  
GG: yeah!!  
GG: i have money set aside so how about saturday? :)  
TG: sounds good  
TG: catch ya later harley  
GG: later dave!! :)

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] at 20:12 --

Dave sat back in his chair. He’d be the first to admit he had a lot of fun at the club’s first meet. He sure as hell expected the members to be closer to the scruffy and stuffy nerds that the Dying Sky fanbase was rumored, but they were all quite open and helpful. So, it seemed obvious to try and bring his two favorite people - John excluded - into it.

Terezi was probably the friend he had the most fun with. While John was a great friend, his best friend even, Terezi was just closer to what he thought was his cool kid image. She was sharp, sardonic, and understood his commitment to irony completely (even if she would mock it relentlessly).

As for Jade… Dave didn’t understand quite why, but she pierced through everything so strongly. She could easily cut through the bullshit, and he never felt pressured to not be honest with her. It was consistent, every time he talked to her, it would just melt away. She was also enthusiastic, a quality shared by John, which made it all the easier to get her to indulge Dave’s nerdier side. 

To have either of them at the club would be nice. And Sollux had asked them to bring more people interested in the hobby, which Dave could oblige. He wouldn’t bring his cooler friends, but Jade and Terezi would do fine.

Now, he had to read the stupid space doggy faction manual though. 

He should have known Jade would pick that faction.

\--

The club met three days a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. John and Dave’s second day was a match of the rookies, John versus Kanaya and Roxy versus Dave. While John won his match easily, darting on and off of objectives easily against Kanaya’s heavier army, Dave struggled against Roxy’s heavy magic assault. Unlike John, he’d chosen a faction with no magic, and thus couldn’t deny any of her spells. He ultimately lost, though not before taking down her Archmage, which he was proud of. 

The last day of the week was focused on painting and assembling. Sollux introduced them to the club’s supply of glue and paint. It was all off-brand, but Sollux explained that it was cheaper and frequently better quality than the stuff Playground put out. 

“I’ll admit though,” he said, “for beginners using Playground’s materials, you both did pretty good on your armies.”

John blushed at the compliment, while Dave maintained a cool facade. 

The rest of the meet was spent building spare minis for the club to use. The veteran club members had brought their own minis to paint, so the four newbies were put on the case. Overall, the experience was nice, and it allowed the newer members to consolidate their bonds, especially with Kanaya, who had been the quietest of the group. 

The weekend came as quickly as the week went, and John found himself walking towards the hobby shop. Roxy had set their meeting in the afternoon, and she had texted him that she was already waiting for him a few minutes ago. So he walked, slowly but surely moving from the closest bus stop to his destination.

John liked spring. It was a comfortable season, colder than summer but warmer than winter, usually windy but also never oppressive. There was no such thing as an unbearable spring day. It also helped that his birthday was in spring, mid april, when spring was at its best. 

Thinking that, he was reminded that his birthday was coming up soon. He wondered what he should ask his father and his friends for. 

Finally, he arrived at the hobby shop. In front of it waited Roxy, wrapped up in a black coat with pink buttons and a long scarf. 

“Hey!” said John, approaching Roxy. Despite John being tall, Roxy was almost as tall as him, which was slightly intimidating the more he thought about it.

“Yo Egbert,” replied Roxy. “So, got an idea what you want to buy?”

“Yeah, a few ideas. Probably a wind barge or something, I don’t want to make you broke either.”

“Pffft, don’t worry about cash, my family’s loaded as heck.”

“Still… wait, is that Dave?”

Roxy turned around. Sure enough, she spotted the blonde-haired boy behind her, walking up to the hobby shop. He was accompanied by a much shorter girl, with long, black hair and thick, coke-bottle glasses.

“Yeah, it is. Who’s the chick though?”

“Oh, that’s Jade. She’s a friend of ours. What are they doing here though?”

“Let’s ask ‘em.”

John shouted Dave’s name, which got him to look up. Jade waved back enthusiastically. The two pairs quickly rejoined.

“Hey Jade. What’re you doing here?”

“Oh, Dave’s getting me into Dying Sky! He showed me the rules and I decided I wanted to get in on the action.”

“Oh, neat! What faction do you wanna play?”

“She wants to play the space doggies. Please convince her to play anything else…” groaned Dave, adjusting his sunglasses.

“What, the Wulfen? They’re great though! Don’t listen to the whiner, you’ll have fun playing them.” replied Roxy.

“Alright, enough babbling,” said Dave, “let’s just go in and get her started.”

The four entered the shop. It was a cozy, local hobby shop. The walls were covered with shelves, holding boxes of various board games, minis for role playing games and model kits for wargames. In the center of the room were two tables, covered with terrain pieces for games, with other tables off to the side for trading card games.

The group was greeted by a young, red-haired employee.

“Good afternoon! What can I do for you?”

Dave explained that Jade was new to the hobby and wanted to start an army of Wulfen. The employee nodded, and took the pair towards the Dying Sky section of the store.

“If you want to build Wulfen, you have to start with Stormdogs. I suggest taking two boxes of them and using them as your basic infantry. For elites, I suggest taking at least 1 range specialist, since your army is mainly going to be melee-focused; your options are either the Wolf’s Eyes or the Hounds.”

Jade nodded along, taking in everything the employee was throwing her way. Dave followed, looking around for additions to make to his own army. 

Meanwhile, close by, John and Roxy were looking at the various big models for the Wind Exiles. While their vehicle options were limited, they did have quite a few magical constructs, but John didn’t want to rob Roxy blind and as such he contented himself with a Wind Golem.

“So, what made you pick up the hobby?” he asked Roxy while they were waiting for Jade to finish her shopping. 

“Hm? Oh, Sollux just suggested that I try it when the rules went free and I ended up loving the game. I mean, wizards in space? I was sold, pretty much. How about you?”

“Oh, I just found the game while browsing online. I don’t have much of a story, I wish I did.”

“Yeah, I guess I don’t really either. But does it matter? We love the game and we have good fun.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Jade arrived, arms full of boxes and Dave at her side. Quickly, the group made their purchases and walked out, satisfied with their buys. They said their goodbyes and separated, each going back home to build the models they had bought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, sorry for a kinda filler chapter, I promise I'll get back to the plot next time. 
> 
> I hope you still enjoy it and don't flay me alive for a poor chapter DX


	4. Of Glue and Paint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jade is introduced to the wonders of model building, and then to the wonders of crushing your opponent.

Dave always found himself impressed with the size of the Harley house. 

It wasn’t quite a manor, despite his reference to it as such quite often when describing it. It wasn’t even a McMansion: it was an intergenerational house, inherited from Jade’s grandfather, nestled on the hills overlooking their small town. Still, it was quite big. Not even John’s house left such an impression of size and grandeur, and John’s house was no slouch in the size department. Jade’s house was just impregnated with a sense of history, a sense that this was a family rich in both money and livelihood.

He enjoyed it much more than his bro’s cramped apartment to say the least.

So it was here, in the grand space that served the Harleys as a living room, that he introduced Jade to the joys of assembling your minis.

“What do you mean, they’re not assembled?” exclaimed Jade as she pulled out the plastic grids holding the pieces, as if Dave would lie to her about their nature.

“Of course not. Why do you think I bought glue?”

“I thought they’d be like toys, like already put together…”

“Jade.”

“What?”

“There are pictures on the Playground website, how’d you miss that?”

“I dunno! Ok, it’s fine, I can do this! Tell me they at least come with instructions.”

“They do now, but older kits don’t have them. Thankfully, your kits are all latest edition. They updated the Wulfen pretty early on.”

“Okay, good.”

They pulled out the first kit of Stormdogs. Jade immediately snatched the assembly instructions and opened it, reading all the steps. 

A question popped into Dave’s mind.

“Wait, aren’t you in the robotics club at school? How would not having instructions stop you in any way? Those are way more complicated to build.”

“We have blueprints for robots, Dave. Besides, I just do the assembly, it’s not that hard.”

“Then this should be even easier for you.”

“Yeah, it’s still my first time though! Did we buy cutters?”

“Brought mine, didn’t need to.”

He passed the cutters to Jade, who examined them carefully before returning to the assembly manual. She then picked up the first of two plastic grids, while muttering to herself about “part 42”. She finally found it, and picked up the cutters.

“Careful, don’t want to accidentally cut off part of the model,” reminded Dave.

“I know, shh! I’m concentrating!”

Silently, she cut off the plastic links connecting a pair of canine legs to the grid, which then fell on the table.

“Yes! I did it! Now we just need the base… ah!” Jade picked up a small plastic bag containing the bases, small round black plastic pieces. She opened the bag and picked one up.

“I need to glue the legs now, right?”

“Yep. Glue’s in the bag.”

Jade left the model pieces on the table and ruffled through the bag, producing the glue she and Dave had bought. She struggled with the packaging, but finally freed the small bottle from its plastic cage. She then removed the cap, and expertly dropped two small drops on the base, before putting the legs atop it.

“Okay, what now?” she asked.

“Just let it dry before we do the rest. Take that time to cut and glue the rest of the legs.”

Jade nodded, and proceeded to do just that, putting together the nine remaining bases with the nine remaining pairs of legs. Dave then guided her into assembling one complete Stormdog, though she didn’t really need the help. Piece by piece, they finished assembling the first batch of models, and by the end of it Jade was beaming with pride.

“We did it!” she exclaimed, as if there was any doubt she and Dave could finish a kit.

“We’re not done yet,” said Dave, “they still need to be painted.”

“Oh, true! How do we do that?”

“Okay, grab the first one we finished, I’ll help you with that one and leave the rest to you.”

Dave then grabbed the paints and his brushes, including the can of primer...

Right. Priming first, he reminded himself.

“First, we need to go outside. Do you have something we can get paint on?”

“We ate pizza last night. Would the box be good?”

“Yeah, that’s good,” said Dave, ignoring the idea of the Harleys sitting around eating pizza like they were him and his bro. They went and fetched the box, and got out on the patio behind Jade’s house.

The patio overlooked a large garden. Dave knew it was maintained by Jade and Jade alone, and sometimes he wondered how she did it. The plants were wild and varied, and all looked healthy and beautiful. They were obviously organized in some fashion, but Dave couldn’t tell you how: he wasn’t a horticulturist. 

They placed the pizza box on the table and, Dave guiding her, Jade started priming the model. She flinched at the spray at first, but quickly got used to it. Before long, the model was completely covered in black primer, which would fit better the colors Jade wanted to paint it. 

Dave then pulled out the paints, and slowly, he lead her into painting the miniature the right colors: from base to drybrush, they painted the model’s fur, then its armor and weapons, black and grey with highlights of green on the weaponry and armor. 

They had it, a complete miniature.

“There you go,” said Dave, “now you can use this one as reference for the other models in the troop.”

He admired the work of his friend. She hadn’t done a bad job, despite the basic paint scheme. He told her so.

“Oh good! I was really afraid I’d mess it up or something. Thanks for the help, Dave!”

“No problem. You gonna be okay for the other models?”

“Yeah, I think so! Can I send you pictures for your opinion?”

“I’d be happy to give it to you.”

On these words, Jade guided Dave back to the front door, waving enthusiastically as he walked away from her front porch. She then got back to her models, gluing and painting late into the night.

\--

“Wow, those are pretty good! You’re a natural, JH.”

Sollux’s compliments were rare, but the rest of the club had to agree: Jade had done a bang-up job on the models she had bought. 

“Thanks! I have to admit though, I had a pretty good teacher.”

Dave kept a stoic face, but deep down he was touched by the compliment.

“Alright, well let’s put those models to work, yes? As club president, I declare that the first match of the day will pit our newest member against one of the veterans. You know the rules, yes?”

“Yes, but, why me first?”

“It’s like in Fight Club. If it’s your first time here, you have to play.”

“I haven’t seen Fight Club!”

“You haven’t?” asked John. “How? You’re friends with Dave, has his bro not forced you to watch it yet?”

“Nope.”

“Dave, no fair! I had to sit through the movie AND your bro repeating how ‘rad’ everything was!”

“Hey, don’t blast me bro, she hasn’t been to my place yet. I promise you she’ll have the full Bro Strider Fight Club Experience if she ever comes.”

Deep inside, Jade hoped she never had to.

Still, a table was prepared and Jade was sat at the end of it, while the other club members debated who to pit against the newbie. In the end, a short, messy-haired indian boy was thrust forward and he sat down, opening a case containing black-and-red minis. Jade was bad at recognizing armies, so she wasn’t sure what he was playing, but it sure looked menacing.

“Hi! What’s your name?” She asked, hoping to alleviate some of the tension.

The boy paused, seemingly confused as to why someone would ask his name, before answering.

“Karkat,” he said.

“Oh, that’s a cool name!”

“Please don’t make conversation right now, I’d like to focus.”

Jade obliged him, before he questioned her again.

“What are you playing?”

“Wulfen.”

He paused again, mumbling to himself before pulling out his models.

“Ok, since you’re the new one here, I’ll let you deploy and go first. If it means anything to you, I’m playing Alternian. I saw what your army looked like, so we’ll go Hero-infantry-elites, with no vehicles or heavy. That work for you?”

Jade agreed, and started deployment.

\--

Thirty minutes later and Karkat was fuming.

He didn’t know when, but at some point during the match he had lost complete control. His infantry was blitzed, and despite being the most recent addition to the veteran squad he did know quite a few things about the game, one of which was that Alternian infantry could not stand toe-to-toe with Wulfen melee. He also mentally added Suppressing Fire to the list of abilities that were stupid and wrong, as that had prevented him from hitting any of the Wulfen infantry before it got into melee range (why the hell did a melee-focused faction have access to ranged abilities anyway, he thought). He still had his general, his Hero unit, but his elites were all dead, a good quantity of power-levels down the proverbial drain.

But it didn’t snap until Jade decided to use magic.

“I cast Bloodlust on my Shaman. Aura 6”, 1 additional attack and reroll 1s to hit.”

“WHO. THE FUCK. USES MAGIC WITH THE WULFEN?”

Karkat’s screech surprised everyone in the room, including Jade. 

“Well, I do obviously, I just said I cast-”

“Who built your army?! Did they not see how powerful the non-magical Wulfen heroes are? How conditional their magic is? How conditional them getting magic points is? WHO LOOKED AT THAT FACTION MANUAL AND SAID ‘Yep, let’s use the magic Hero’?”

“Actually, I did.”

Karkat turned around. Dave was the one that spoke up.

“We played a few practice games and she wasn’t gelling well with the bashy heroes that didn’t do much else so I thought it’d work better if we tried-”

“Magic? You know, the huge weakness the Wulfen have that makes them BALANCED?”

 

“The spells looked dope and it seemed like a good surprise to spring on opponents. And hey,” Dave gestured at the board, “it worked.”

Karkat sat back down, looking sullen. He mumbled something.

“What was that?” asked Sollux, being close enough to hear what Karkat actually mumbled. 

“I surrender. I’ve obviously lost.” Karkat clarified. He protruded a hand forward, towards Jade, though he was still obviously avoiding her gaze. “Well played.”

Jade hesitantly shook his hand, and Karkat started packing his army. He was silent. He went to the back of the room, pulled out an unfinished mech-looking model, and started painting. 

“Wow,” said Sollux, “that’s a first.”

“What is?” asked John.

“Karkat’s never surrendered before,” clarified Eridan. “He’s been in the club for a little over a year, and I’ve seen him lose a ton of games, but I’ve never actually seen him give up. You’re more likely to drag him kicking and screaming through a defeat than actually get him to surrender.”

“And it’s not like he was playing poorly, either,” added Sollux, turning to Jade. “He didn’t go easy on you. You just crushed him.”

“I guess I had a good teacher!” answered Jade, looking at Dave.

“No kidding...” added Roxy.

“So, who’s up next?” asked Sollux. “We still have the room for at least an hour and a half.”

“I’ll go,” said John, “I’m still not super good at using my heavies. Who wants to play me?”

“I’m in,” added Vriska, “I still haven’t played you yet somehow.”

The club resumed their activities, with Karkat in the corner, until the day came to a close. As everyone was saying their goodbyes and heading for the door, chattering tactics or hobby mumbo jumbo, Karkat slowly rose up. He put the heavy imperial drone in his bag before heading for the door, head lowered.

He never thought of himself as a bad player. He’d gone through loss streaks, but he’d always come back with a new idea, a list addition that made it better. But here, he couldn’t see how he lost. Maybe he focused the wrong targets? Or maybe he shouldn’t have gone to melee as eagerly as he did?

It all shuffled through his head, but he knew who could help him.

He approached Dave and Jade.

“Hey.”

“Oh, hey Karkat! I hope you’re not too sad about earlier?” Jade’s voice was chipper, empty of malice.

“Nah, it’s fine. Listen, could you guys… damnit, I feel dumb, but I need your help.”

“Help with what?” asked Dave.

“... could I play you guys outside of the club? I need to get better and it seems you guys are smarter than I am.”

“Dude, it’s not that deep,” answered Dave, “you lost one game, that happens to everyone.“

“Dave, that’s not how you treat someone who asks for help! Here, I’ll give you our Pesterchum handles. Maybe we can help you with your lists and some tactics?”

“That’d be nice,” said Karkat.

“Here, we’ll talk about it tonight, ok? I’ll make a group chat,” continued Jade, “Dave’s good at lists, he’ll help you with yours.”

Dave shrugged, but he seemed likely to help. 

Karkat thanked the two and went home, along with everyone else. 

\--

As they were leaving, Roxy approached John.

“So, Jade and Dave were practicing outside the club, huh?” asked Roxy.

“Honestly, I didn’t know any more than you guys knew. Dave might be my best friend, but him and Jade are also really close, so it’s not surprising that they did that and I didn’t know.”

“Yeah, but I mean, it seemed to have worked wonders, right? Jade’s super good.”

“What’re you getting at, Roxy?”

“I think they had the right idea. We should totally just play together outside of the club, it’d help us both. You still have trouble using heavy units, right? I could help with that!”

“But, I mean, my faction kind of counters yours, doesn’t it?”

“Eh, I need practice against good denial anyway. So, whaddya say? Practice buddies?”

“Sure. When?”

“I was thinking this weekend?”

“That works. Send me your address over Pesterchum or something.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it. See you then!”

Roxy walked away, a small smile on her lips. She felt very sly, but it helped that John was oblivious as all get out. Rose was right about the boy, he was both bright and dim. But he was nice, and to Roxy that was enough.

Weekend games were a good start. She was sure in time he’d see the light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter! I'm sorry for the long wait, I've been pretty busy these last few months and this chapter was harder to pump out than the others for reasons that escape me. Also, finally progress on the main promised ship! I swear we'll see more of those two, I'm just juggling them and the club to give them both equal time.


	5. First Practice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John goes to Roxy's place, and a new face joins the club.

John didn’t know what he expected.

He knew the Lalondes were rich. Rose had flat-out told him the first time they met. She hadn’t gone into detail, but she’d insinuated enough that John thought he could imagine how rich they were.

He sure as hell wasn’t expecting the mansion he found himself in front of. 

Well, that wasn’t completely true, he’d expected the big house. He didn’t expect the gates. Large, iron-wrought gates, adorned with a large, golden “L”. This was the kind of thing John saw in cartoons, and didn’t expect anyone in the real world to own.

And yet…

John looked around the gate. There had to be a way to let Roxy know he’d arrived. He finally spotted a small monitor, with a speaker and what seemed to be a small doorbell. He approached it and rang.

There was no sound for a minute. Then the monitor turned on, presenting a large pair of pink eyes blinking at him. The speaker crackled to life, and Roxy’s voice came through.

“John! You’re early! Don’t move, I’m coming to get you.”

John took a step back, and waited for Roxy to come get him. He fiddled around with the army box he brought with him, though not enough to spill its contents on the front yard and make a mess. He also had a bag, which contained the admittedly pretty big Wind Golem he had bought about two weeks back with Roxy. Assembly and painting had gone better than he expected: the model was rather big, but it was also fairly light on detail and John, while not as fantastic as Dave at painting, knew his way around a brush.

After about a minute, Roxy arrived, wearing a zip-up hoodie, sweatpants and boots. She opened the door, welcomed John in, and walked him to the large house.

Once inside, she removed the hoodie and hung it, and offered to take John’s coat. He accepted, laying down his things so he could help her. He was surprised (and admittedly, a bit flustered) when he noticed she was only wearing a tank top under the hoodie. This was certainly a lot closer than he expected to get to the girl but hey, if she was this comfortable there was nothing wrong with it.

She guided him to the living room, where she had already set up a table with terrain for them to play. John noticed that her army was larger than what she usually brought out at the club, including a large runed cube in the back.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s my heavy, the Hyper Dense Cube. It shoots lasers or something. Not my favorite model, if I’m honest.”

“Why not?”

“It’s pretty boring. It just boosts casting and has just one weapon. It’s admittedly a great weapon, but the Void Wizards have access to a lot of crazy shit for heavies.”

“Then why don’t you use another one?”

“I just haven’t taken the time to assemble them. They’re in the garage, waiting. I’ll probably build a few once the actual newbies have some more firepower.”

John sat down and deployed. He pulled out the Wind Golem first (eliciting an “ooh” from Roxy), placing him at the back.

“Ok, there’s your first mistake,” said Roxy, “you should place him more midfield, so he can be effective. What’s the range on his weapons?”

“Cleave, 3 inches, no range,” answered John.

“Then you should place him in front. Otherwise he’s never gonna hit anything.”

John nodded, and corrected. He then deployed as usual.

The match started as most do, with both sides taking position. They had decided on a deathmatch mission, which meant no objectives to take. John advanced his Wind Golem on further in the middle, but Roxy noticed some hesitation in his movement of the behemoth.

“You shouldn’t be scared of losing your heavy. His entire job is to soak up damage and return it. Yeah he’ll go down, but at worst you forced your opponent’s heavy in a bad position, and at best you forced him to use up his firepower on a heavy while you dismantle him with the rest of your army. He’s not a hero.”

John took in the criticism and moved more ferociously, taking on most of Roxy’s infantry. A few lucky rolls later and Roxy conceded, before they replaced their units and played another match. This extended into the afternoon, with Roxy spouting strategic advice to John who then applied it to his gameplay. By the end of the day, John felt like a better player. He hadn’t won every match, he had in fact lost more than he had won, but he’d landed a few calculated moves that he was proud of. 

Satisfied with their games, they decided to wrap up before Roxy’s parents got home and dinner was prepared. John grabbed all his minis and carefully put them in his box, and put the golem in his bag. Roxy then guided him to the door.

“Nice job on the golem, by the by.”

“Thanks!”

At the door, Roxy asked for a hug, which John was more than willing to oblige her with. During the embrace, Roxy thought to herself, how could she be both coy and forward about her attraction to the boy? Before she knew it, she had a subtle, yet silly idea. John was obviously taller than her, and she was at about neck level. Quickly, she dropped a peck on the little bit of exposed skin there was there.

She knew it’d confuse John, but wasn’t that part of the fun?

She was right. John didn’t mention anything, but as he walked back towards the gate, he was certainly confused.

He wasn’t even sure if what he had felt was real. He dismissed it as his imagination running wild on him.

Probably the tank top playing tricks on him.

\--

John arrived the next Wednesday to find the club room very animated. On the middle table, Karkat was animatedly discussing with a girl he did not recognize. 

“... you CAN’T use Shining Justice unless I don’t share a faction keyword with you! Can’t you read?”

“I, in fact, cannot. They still don’t furnish screens in braille, you know?”

“But they do have text-to-speech programs. THAT I know. So either you’re being voluntarily oblivious or you’re an idiot who doesn’t read her faction rules.”

“The former, I assure you,” said the newcomer with what could only be described as a shit-eating grin.

Not wanting to bother the bantering players at the table, John went to see Sollux, who was sitting in the corner painting.

“Oh, hey Egbert, what’s up?”

“Who’s the new girl?”

“Oh that’s TZ- Terezi. She’s a friend of Vriska and Dave who they convinced to get in the hobby.”

“Oh ok. And she’s antagonizing Karkat because..?”

“It’s in her nature, apparently.”

They both looked on as Karkat continued to rant at the girl while she cackled at every insult-laden sentence. Karkat was apparently losing, to what John understood was at the very least a legally-blind girl. She seemed to push every button she could.

“He likes her.”

“What?” said John. “How can you tell?”

“Karkat’s only animated like this if he cares about who he’s talking to. He gets frustrated easily, but he won’t show it unless he feels like he can trust you. He’s rather shy.”

“That’s- wait, you mean he liked Jade?”

Sollux nodded.

“And Dave?” John remembered a particularly fierce verbal beatdown between the two before Jade joined.

“Yeah. He’s bi.”

“Oh.” John stopped for a bit. “Wait, did he like me?”

“Not really, he trusts you now, but it wasn’t rant-at-first-sight like the other two.”

John paused for another second, before Sollux resumed.

“I’m happy though, we almost have enough people to start a campaign. Only missing two…”

“I mean, I think I know someone I could get into this stuff.”

“Oh, cool, me too. Think you could convince them by Friday after next?”

“Awfully specific but probably. She’s Roxy’s cousin.”

“Alright, that’s your mission then.”

They continued to watch Karkat’s defeat, while John thought of ways he could get Rose to play. 

It shouldn’t be hard. He had the power of the cults by his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! Sorry for the long wait since last chapter, I had classes to get through. Also forgive me if this chapter is rather short, next one will be longer, promise.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Leave a comment if you did.


End file.
